Energy Conservation Week Of TNEB Inaugurated
V.K. Manoharan, Chief Engineer, Distribution, Coimbatore Region, speaking at the inauguration of the energy conservation week of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board in Coimbatore on Monday. Compared to the rate of electricity consumption in agriculture and industry sectors, the highest growth has been in the domestic sector since 1970, V.K. Manoharan, Chief Engineer, Distribution, Coimbatore Region, said here on Monday. Inaugurating the Energy Conservation Week of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), he said while the electrical energy need in agriculture had declined from 25 per cent to 20 per cent and 50 per cent to 40 per cent in industry, while it had risen from five per cent to 24.35 in the domestic sector.
“There has been an exponential rise in the domestic sector. This is because of the changing lifestyle of people. When the demand increases, it has to be met. We have started depleting fossil fuels for the purpose. This in turn has led to increase in emission of green house gases and eventually global warming. Energy conservation, particularly electrical energy conservation, is the need of the hour,” Mr. Manoharan said. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), under the aegis of the Government of India, had been constituted to implement energy conservation policies and practices. It had put forth three main recommendations, which, if implemented in the right spirit, would lead to enormous saving of power.
“The first suggestion is replacement of all incandescent lamps. The BEE has suggested replacing 24 million lamps with CFL lamps. This is expected to save 6,000 MW of energy. The light manufacturers will be motivated to sell the lamps at Rs. 15 each instead of the actual price of Rs. 80 or Rs. 100. The second recommendation involves introducing the standards and labelling scheme for manufacturers who will manufacture energy efficient lamps. This is expected to save 500 MW energy,” he said. The third was the implementation of Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC). Under this scheme, 320 commercial buildings had been identified as ECBC compliant. This was expected to save 300 MW energy.
If these recommendations could be implemented, there would be an abundance of energy available, he asserted. The State Government would also use an energy efficiency team to conduct energy auditing. It had been identified that there were energy leakages in automobile, cement, paper and pulp, and textile industries. The TNEB would ensure that the existing 18 per cent line loss would be brought down, he said. Representatives from the Government of India, industry and academia shared their experiences in energy conservation.
